Cambridge’s Mount Auburn to remain in use with new burial options

Thursday

Mount Auburn is nearing its 190th anniversary as the first garden cemetery in the U.S. with approximately 175 acres of land, two chapels, and nearly 120 cremations and 500 interments each year.

Bree Harvey, vice president of cemetery and visitor services, said Mount Auburn has been developing additional burial space since the 1990s, when the cemetery commissioned a landscape architecture firm to develop a master plan.

“We wanted to figure out how to best preserve the historic integrity of the landscape that is such a beloved community resource [and] continue…into the future as an active cemetery,” she said. “At this point in time we do not feel the same pressure, I suppose, that some of the municipal cemeteries are feeling.”

Though some prefer a more traditional burial with an individual marker on a private grave, many are now opting for a shared memorial, featuring a group plaque or memorial as a center point to a burial area, Harvey said.

“There are a lot of options and opportunities to develop more spaces as long as our clients are willing to expect that they might not get what they thought they would get…with a traditional burial, where everything is lined in a row,” she said.

Shared memorials and cremation

Harvey said in recent years there has been more concern about “what’s going on above ground than below ground.”

As a community resource, Harvey said the cemetery has been developing areas dedicated to shared inscriptions and group-like memorials, like Birch Gardens.

“We’ve gotten past the point of thinking that every single grave that we develop has to look exactly the same way, that every grave needs a casket, and frankly that every one should be designed for a casket,” she said.

Though traditional burials -- caskets marked with individual graves -- can start at an estimated $60,000, shared burials are significantly cheaper, some starting anywhere between $3,000 to $25,000.

In Birch Gardens, families can purchase private raised markers, a section of the granite wall panel along Coolidge Avenue, and various tablets in line with the ground.

And as cremation reaches an all-time high, Mount Auburn offers plenty of space for urns and remains, which Harvey said saves a lot of room in the long-run. In the state of Massachusetts, the demand for traditional burials and cremation is nearly equal.

“Massachusetts is finally [reaching] the 50 percent mark,” said Harvey. “[Mount Auburn] is definitely beyond that point as far as selling space.”

When talking about cremation, she continued, some are looking to spend less money on memorialization, and others are making a “lifestyle choice,” mainly to be environmentally conscious.

Natural burials and Hazel Path

With the lush landscape, natural burials are becoming more and more popular at Mount Auburn.

The cemetery started offering natural burials in 2014 after receiving their green certification from the Green Burial Council, and is still one of the only cemeteries to do so.

Natural burials, said Harvey, involved a biodegradable container with no outer lining.

“You’re not doing the concrete box in the ground,” she continued. “The body is buried in a shroud or simple pine box, no chemicals or metal fasteners. … Natural burials [allow us] to align ourselves with our community and leave a small environmental footprint.”

Burying a shroud is relatively easy, said Harvey, since it’s smaller than a traditional lined casket. And for some religions, like Judaism and Islam, a natural burial is in high-demand.

With the natural burial comes a number of memorialization options, from plaques on trees to shared markers on the ground.

Mount Auburn is also currently in the works of creating a new memorialization space called Hazel Path, which connects the rest of the cemetery to the heart at Washington Tower.

The plan is to install obelisks and boulders on the path to memorialize loved ones and accommodate the range of burial remains. And when you walk along, added Harvey, the steep slope brings you to the top of the trees to see the Boston skyline.

“It's pretty incredible that we’ve been in business for 180 years as an active cemetery, yet we are still able to offer a burial option for contemporary clients that are in such an historical and horticulturally significant cemetery,” said Harvey.